Phases of the moon
by HatoriFangirl
Summary: Noblesse: a re-telling of the story from chapter 19 to include an odd young female inventor with a love for helping others and admiring attractive men. In progress, lemons later. OCxM-21, OCxTakeo OCxOC. Lots of OC's, but follows the existing storyline. (please be kind when reviewing, I just wrote it for myself) 2k-ish works per chapter, I tried to pick decent breaks.
1. Chapter 1

The school bell rang, signaling the beginning of class, but the teachers were all standing in the headmaster's office, concluding a quick meeting he'd called them into earlier. As he finished his announcement, he dismissed the teachers to go back to their classes.

"Professor Park, could you stay here a moment?" Principal Lee's voice called out cordially as he walked to the double doors of his office and motioned for a young woman to follow him back in.

"What is it?" Professor Park asked gruffly, his mood already soured by the news they'd just received. He didn't like the events that had happened near their school lately, and having to constantly tell students to be more and more on guard was making him wonder if the school was as safe as he'd originally thought.

Lee motioned for the young woman to stand in front of his desk while he moved behind it to pull out some papers to hand to her. "Professor Park, this young woman is a new student here, starting today. She is from America originally, but has spent some time here, so she is learning the culture, but she's not perfectly situated yet." He pulled out some more papers and studied them, smiling to himself. "Her grades are excellent, and she comes well-recommended from her previous schools, so I'm sure she will be a welcome addition to ours."

Park stared at the girl who was quietly reading through the papers she'd been handed. She didn't look like a trouble maker, so he hoped she wouldn't turn out to be one. The last thing he needed was another Shinwoo.

Grumbling beneath his breath, Park acknowledged Principal Lee, then turned to instruct the girl to follow him. She nodded and smiled awkwardly before thanking Lee and hurriedly following the intimidating professor down the hall. As they walked, Park realized he'd need to introduce her, and had yet to hear her name.

"Hm. What's your name?" his grouchy voice asked over his shoulder.

"Hm? Oh, let's see… Young Hana-Yun. It's not my American name, but when I came here, the family who I stayed with helped me pick that as my new name. I hope that isn't a problem?" she giggled nervously. Park stifled a groan, but managed to reply that it wasn't an issue. They arrived at the classroom, and he entered first, indicating that she should stand to the side of his podium while he spoke to the class. He knew an announcement had been given over the P.A. system, but that it was up to him to explain it.

"Listen up! As you've heard, there was an incident in the neighborhood. Law enforcement has suggested that students be sent home early."

Han Shinwoo's hand shot up immediately. "Teacher, what happened?"

Park groaned to himself, but knew that it was likely better to tell them. "Someone was murdered." He admitted, his voice low. The students began murmuring amongst themselves, putting him on edge. "Police are still looking for the culprit. All we've been told is that it wasn't an ordinary murder. I know it's inconvenient for some of you, but please head straight home after school gets out. No tutoring sessions, after school activities, or co-curricular events." His voice was stern as he instructed them, knowing it was in their best interests.

"Yes sir" the class responded dully.

"We also have a new addition to the campus. Miss Young Hana-Yun has decided to transfer here. She is originally American, but has spent some time here. Still, please help her with our customs and such if she needs it. Young, you may say a few words about yourself if you like."

Hana blushed a bit, still nervous about having to try to introduce herself to a Korean class, especially after the announcement the professor had just made. She'd spent over a year here, attending a special school and living with a Korean family for the first 8 months to help her transition, but she still felt like a foreigner when it came to formal introductions. She cleared her throat, trying to appear calm and confident as she spoke. "Please call me Hana if you like. I grew up in America, but I've done my best to learn what I can about Korea so that I won't cause you any trouble, but please excuse me if I make some mistakes. I've heard great things about this school, and I look forward to my time here." She smiled softly, giving a quick little bow of the head.

"Hm. Shinwoo! Go grab a desk and chair from the old room. Put it next to Ikhan." Park called out, getting the redhead's attention. Shinwoo grumbled but left the room to find a seat for the new girl.

"Young, do you have any friends near here yet? You missed the P.A. announcement, but we are advising all students to have at least one companion when going home after school."

"Aah… no, I don't yet. Is there a cab system, perhaps? I can call one of those for today."

"There are a few, but you should call one well ahead of time, as they're all based across town. Notify your afternoon teacher if you need to."

"Ah, yes. Thank you professor." She acknowledged his advice, then moved to stand in the back of the room while waiting for Shinwoo to return. It didn't take long before he was back, and placed the desk and chair where the teacher had told him to. "Sorry you had to wait." He offered sheepishly, making her smile. "No worries. Sorry you had to go get these for me. I appreciate it though." She blushed a little at him, suddenly noticing he was kind of cute. "Hehe, no problem." He responded. He opened his eyes again, having closed them when he made his sheepish grin, and she was struck by the bright blue hues staring back at her. He turned and walked back to his seat, breaking her gaze. She sat in her chair, pulling a notebook out so she could take notes, despite not having her books yet. She'd studied far more advanced subjects than most schools this level would teach, so she was confident she'd be able to keep up until she could get the books.

"Han Shinwoo, Woo Ikhan, Seo Yuna, and Kadis…" professor park started, referring to his roll sheet before continuing, "Kadis Etrama D. Raizel… You four go to the principal's office." Park called out, just as Shinwoo had settled back into his chair.

"What is it?" the red-head blurted out.

"I didn't ask. Did you guys cause problems already?" Park countered.

"No sir!" Shinwoo denied irritably.

"Fine then." Park concluded, turning to start his lecture for the day.

Hana looked around curiously at the four who were standing up in response to the professor's announcement, noticing that Shinwoo was being accompanied by the quiet, dark-haired young man in the seat next to Shinwoo's, as well as a young brunette girl in front of herself, and a short boy with glasses between her and the dark-haired one. She was curious about it, but had no real reason to ask anyone, so instead she focused on what the professor was writing on the board.

The four kids came back later, once again piquing Hana's curiosity, but no one else seemed to care, so she tried to ignore it. The rest of the day went by fairly smoothly, though she had to share books with other students in a couple of classes, just to be sure she was taking the proper notes. She couldn't help noticing those four throughout the day as they'd hang out together, even sharing their meal at lunch. Despite spending so much time in Korea, she still hadn't had real ramen, as she was a bit wary of it. She'd packed a sandwich and some fruit for her meal, and chewed on them quietly as she doodled in her notebook. A few students had approached her outside of classes and introduced themselves, some asking questions about if she was really from America, etc, but none stuck around or invited her to hang out or anything, so she spent her lunch alone, but it didn't bother her.

Towards the end of the day, she remembered professor Park's advice and asked the last teacher if she could make a call about a half hour before the end of class, which he allowed once she explained the reason.

By the end of the day, she felt relieved that the first day had gone well, and hoped things would continue to go well for as long as possible. She waited out front for the cab to appear, catching Shinwoo and his friends out of the corner of her eye as they walked out the front gates. Shinwoo noticed her and asked about her situation, since he'd been out of the room when she'd explained her intention to get a cab. She re-explained to him and he apologized for her having to go through such troubles on her first day at their school and asked which direction she lived in. She lived down the street from Principal Lee's home by about a block, so Shinwoo offered to let her walk home with their group in the future.

"Aah… that would be nice, as long as it wouldn't be a problem for any of you. I'd hate to be a bother."

"No way! Not a problem at all. We all walk that direction anyway, and with all the safety measures going on lately, I'm sure the headmaster would appreciate it, too." He countered jovially. She found herself blushing again at the mirth in his eyes and nodded, agreeing that it would be best.

Shinwoo called the others over to talk with Hana while she waited for the cab, which she'd been informed would likely be late, given their usual routes were further away than she'd anticipated. The group offered to just walk with her today, but she said it would be rude to just ignore the effort the cab driver had put out to drive all the way there for her.

When it finally arrived, she bid farewell to the others, looking forward to possibly making friends with them. They waved goodbye and walked off together, chatting about whatever it was teens in this region cared about. She took her time in the cab as a chance to think about the people she'd met today, though she'd barely had time to consider half a dozen of them before the driver pulled up to her home. She paid him and thanked him for his effort.

"No problem, miss. I heard about the problems on this side of town, and I'm glad you called a cab, rather than walking alone. Will you be needing a ride every day? I can plan ahead better if you do." The older gentleman offered, and she couldn't help being touched by his kindness.

"No, thankfully that won't be necessary. The students I was talking with when you arrived offered to escort me home from now on. Thank you for the offer though." She smiled happily.

"Don't mention it. And if something changes, you just call up this number," he said, handing her a business card with his specific driver number on it, and his company's information, "just be sure to call at least an hour ahead if you can. We get awful busy downtown, and it can be hard to get over here quickly. I don't work every day, but we have a lot of good kids working at the garage, and any one of 'em would be glad to help keep you kids safe." He nodded, as if affirming his own statement. "You take care now, and don't lose that card."

She smiled and clutched the card happily, nodding to him. Looking at the card, she read his name. "Thank you Mr. Jung, I'll be sure to keep it safe." She promised, waving to him and heading indoors. She noticed he hadn't left yet, and decided to wave goodbye again as she entered her house. As soon as she closed the door, he drove off, and she couldn't help smiling again at his paternal behavior.


	2. Chapter 2

The house was empty as usual, so she set her things in the living room and went to the kitchen to get something to drink and a snack to tide her over while she worked on her homework. She felt a little bad now, thinking back to that morning. She'd been with a Korean exchange family for her first 8 months, but she'd already been here just over a year, and now lived on her own. To be more accurate, though, she'd bought this home shortly after moving to Korea, knowing she'd want a home of her own once she was out of the exchange program.

Lee had been correct when he mentioned her grades being excellent, but luckily for her, he hadn't made a big deal of her academic achievements, despite how extensive some of them were. She'd been scouted by various colleges and even corporations to join their ranks, but she wanted to take a more traditional path and live the life of an average student, more or less. She could teach some of the courses being offered at Yeran high school, but that was no reason to skip out on the average lifestyle other students enjoyed. Especially not when she knew why her achievements were so numerous.

She'd always felt an attachment to people around her, even going so far as to respond to their thoughts and feelings without them being expressed aloud. As she aged, she realized she just… knew things about people around her. It wasn't as if she was hearing their voices in her head or anything, she just suddenly knew various things about them, usually related to things those people were thinking about at the time. She'd practiced focusing on this empathic link, slowly cultivating her skills. Now, it was a simple thing for her to learn just about any simple piece of knowledge from anyone in the vicinity. Deeper secrets were much harder to learn, but it was possible if she had a close relationship with them, or if they were thinking about it really hard while she was around. Thus, it was much simpler for her to learn any subject she was taught, since she could quickly and easily glean the knowledge itself from the instructor or other students. It was the reason that she'd picked up the Korean language so quickly upon arriving there over a year ago.

Normally, she would use her ability to make friends as well, since it made it easier to approach them, but for now, she wanted to try just making friends on her own merit. It would be a good exercise in socializing for her, and she looked forward to it, especially given the unexpected turn of events with Shinwoo and his friends earlier.

Sitting down at her living room table, she sipped her drink and stared around the room appreciatively. It wasn't lavish, but it was nicer than your average student living alone would have. It was amazing the kind of funding she'd been given due to her achievements. She'd invented several intriguing devices before leaving America, some of which had been for herself alone, while others had been submitted into competitions around the country, earning various awards and even a contract with a major engineering company. Her personal inventions were of various natures, but many of them were just so single-purposed that she didn't see the point in submitting them into any contests. Some were just specific to her and her needs and abilities, so she chose to keep them to herself to avoid any strange reactions or questions. The two inventions that had caused her to sign contracts with the engineering companies brought in royalties that had funded her trip to Korea and her home there. She wasn't a billionaire or anything, but she was quite well off.

Preferring to avoid temptation and corruption due to money, she set aside different funds for different purposes, often donating much of it to various schools, charities, and other good causes that caught her attention, using some of her unique connections to make sure the donations were never linked back to her. Making friends was always a great goal, but she never liked the idea of making friends through fame, money, or other material means. True, she'd used her abilities to make things easier, but she never coerced, bribed, or otherwise persuaded them to treat her in a way they wouldn't normally have treated her.

Some of her money was invested, earning slow but steady returns so she could be sure her life would be well-funded. Can't have all your eggs in one basket, after all. When she heard about Yeran High, she assumed it would be an expensive school, but when she studied their system and financials, she realized that something was off about it. The students were charged very reasonably, despite the advanced resources the school provided. Having spoken a bit with Principal Lee before transferring to the school officially, she realized he had given a great deal of his own assets to create the school and continue funding it for many years. He hadn't said it explicitly, of course, but she'd gleaned it during their conversation. This knowledge made her consider donating to the school in the future, but she wanted to spend some time there before making that decision.

Setting her drink on the table, she pulled out her notebook and supplies, opening to a page she'd been on earlier and smiling to herself at the doodles there. They were somewhat shoddy, given her lack of art knowledge, but they were obviously the people they were meant to be. Shinwoo's sheepish smile, Kadis's solemn gaze, Yuna's cheerful smile, and Ikhan's 'game face' were all portrayed on the pages, making her giggle to herself. She'd even drawn professor Park's 'teaching' face, and his 'dammit Shinwoo, WAKE UP' expression, which continued to make her giggle, even now. Principal Lee's encouraging smile also shone up at her from the pages of her notebook. He was a very cheerful person, on the outside, but she'd sensed something deeper hidden away in his thoughts, and wondered to herself if he had any friends to cheer him up.

Turning the page, she found her history notes and decided to start there, as Korean history was the hardest subject for her in terms of things she'd known before coming to Korea translating into her new education. Going into 'study mode', she spent the next few hours going over the things her teachers had discussed that day, as well as some independent studying to try and catch up on assignments and chapters.

"Ahh, done!" she cheered to herself, stretching her arms and back and closing her notes. Checking her cellphone, she realized it was still early. Spending so much time alone, it was better when it went by quickly so she didn't have to think about it, but her homework hadn't taken very long. Packing her school things away, she stood and picked up her trash, throwing it in the kitchen bin before checking the fridge to see what was available for dinner.

"Hmph. Out of milk again." She grumbled to herself, searching other shelves in the fridge. "Aaaand eggs. Guess it's time for a grocery run." Sighing, she stood and closed the fridge door again, retrieving her cellphone from the living room and her purse from the entryway. Slipping her shoes on, she left the house, locked the front door, and trekked down the street to the closest grocery store. The sun hadn't gone completely down yet, but it was getting darker, and she couldn't help remembering the security concerns for the local neighborhood. Hopefully nothing bad would happen, after all, the store wasn't too far away.

Fluorescent lights greeted her as she turned the corner into the store's parking lot, crossing it and entering the store where a little bell jingled on the door to mark her entrance. The storekeeper was busy restocking shelves, but waved at her anyway. She smiled and waved back before ducking down an aisle to reach the refrigerated section. Half a gallon of milk and one dozen eggs later, she was trotting down another aisle full of snacks. They were great for school and study time, so she liked to have plenty on hand. The door jingled again as another patron entered, and she heard a somewhat familiar voice call out to the shopkeeper. Looking over the top of the aisles, she noticed a head of brown hair, but nothing else. She shrugged and picked up a few boxes of her favorite snacks and went up to the counter to set her purchases down. The store keeper set down a box of canned goods and met her there to ring up her items and engage in a little idle chit chat. Just as she finished paying, the brunette from before appeared, ready to ring up her carton of juice, and Hana recognized her as the girl Yuna from Shinwoo's group of friends.

"Yuna, right?" she asked cheerfully as she moved away from the counter, letting the other girl put her things down.

"Hm? Oh, yeah. You're Hana, right? I'm glad you made it home alright." Yuna's voice was soft and kind.

"Yeah, the cab driver was really nice. He said he'd heard about the stuff going on here and was happy to help me stay safe. I felt bad for leaving the house after dark, but I was out of eggs and milk again." Hana explained, shrugging helplessly at her goofy predicament. Yuna finished paying for her purchase and they both thanked the shop keeper before exiting.

"I live down that way, which way is your house?" Hana asked. The brunette smiled at her and pointed in the same direction. "My family lives that way too. We can walk together." Yuna offered cheerfully.

"I feel better already, seeing as it's getting so dark. I have to admit, I was a little worried about the trip back."

They started their walk down the sidewalk, chatting here and there about school and the other students. Hana was surprised at how well they were already getting along, and felt optimistic about meeting the others again.

"Hey." A deep voice called out from behind them, causing them both to stop in surprise.

"Huh?" was all Hana could think to say.

"Yes?" Yuna asked the mysterious figure.

The girls both turned and faced the man, having to look up to meet his gaze, as he was very tall and very large. Hana immediately felt a sense of danger and malevolence from him and took a step back.

"Wha…" she started, but was cut off as he stared at them intently, and suddenly, neither could speak or move. Exhaustion overwhelmed them both and they passed out, dropping their groceries on the sidewalk.


	3. Chapter 3

Sometime later, Hana woke up on a cold, hard surface, and grumbled as she sat up. Looking around, she noticed the area was dark, and filled with construction materials. Yuna was lying next to her, so she shook her gently to wake her up.

"Nng.. what happened?" The brunette asked, suddenly realizing they were not in a friendly place.

"I don't know, but it can't be good." Hana commented dryly.

Footsteps echoed nearby as two figures emerged from the surrounding darkness. The large one stood off to the side as a smaller one came to kneel in front of them.

Yuna looked terrified, but Hana sat there grimly glaring at the silver-haired man. Her first thought was that he was quite handsome, and perhaps that was why this had happened; one of those pretty boys with an evil personality who liked to make other people miserable for his own amusement.

"Wh-why are you doing this?" Yuna stammered nervously. "Why did you bring us here?" her voice was suddenly frantic. Hana reached for the girl's arm to calm her, knowing that freaking out wasn't going to help.

"Shut up." The man spat, his voice cold and stern. Suddenly an evil grin split his face, "You're so loud, I want to kill you right now."

Hana could sense that this man was indeed a killer, and not at all troubled by that fact of his existence. She tried not to flinch when the man focused his gaze on her. His smile faltered to a displeased frown as he stood.

"At least one of you is quiet. Don't think that'll save you though." He warned, his voice grave and intimidating. The large man chuckled and Hana found herself struggling to focus on her skills to glean whatever knowledge she could from them.

The large man turned and spoke with no small amount of glee, "They're here."

The silver-haired man grinned and turned to face a doorway at the side of the room where Shinwoo and Ikhan suddenly appeared.

"Yuna! Hana!" Shinwoo's voice rang out as the two boys ran forward to confront the two mysterious figures. The captors stood calmly between the boys and the two girls still sitting on the floor. Shinwoo and Ikhan skidded to a stop in front of their adversaries, Ikhan bravely wielding a baseball bat. Hana wanted to warn them, but she wasn't even sure what to warn them with. The two men's thoughts were quite calm and well-hidden from her. She could tell they had nefarious plans in mind, but she had no idea what or why, or even who they were.

"Shinwoo…" Yuna whined softly, hoping beyond hope that her long-time friend could somehow save her and Hana.

"It seems you came without a second thought as soon as I hung up. Good, I like that." The silver-haired man patronized. "Your friend seems to be missing, but no matter. Let's begin."

"Why are you doing this?" Shinwoo demanded, glancing to the girls to see if they were hurt, which they didn't seem to be.

"Why? Hm… Well I'm sure you could guess, but why don't you just go ahead and confirm it for yourself. There's no need for an introduction, I suppose." He taunted as a gaunt, dark-skinned figure stepped out from the darkness as well, crazed and blood-thirsty. Hana could feel his desire for bloodshed clearly, and knew as well that he was not an average human.

Shinwoo and Ikhan freaked out when the figure faced them. Recognition dawned on their faces, making Hana wonder how they could possibly know this disturbing figure.

"I've provided this opportunity to offer you a proposal." The silver one offered, like he was talking about afternoon tea.

"What proposal?" Shinwoo asked, suddenly wary.

"I told you on the phone. I'm giving you a chance to save yourselves."

Ikhan furrowed his brows, "What are you talking about?"

The silver-haired man smirked and pointed his thumb towards the creepy guy next to him. "You have to defeat him. And don't worry, we won't interfere."

"So if we beat him, you'll leave us alone from now on?" Ikhan asked cautiously. "How can we trust you?"

"Heh. Would we have gone through all this trouble otherwise? We could just as easily kill all of you."

The two boys stared at him nervously, wondering if they should believe his words.

"I'm done trying to explain this to you. If you don't like the proposal, you can just… die." He smirked evilly.

Shinwoo thought about it for a moment, then frowned. "So you're saying I just have to defeat this guy?"

"Looks like you finally get it." The man proclaimed, happy that these kids weren't as dense as they seemed.

"Sh… Shinwoo?" Ikhan stammered, his hands trembling slightly around the baseball bat.

"Looks like there's no other way." Shinwoo stated, giving a half grin of determination. Hana watched as his entire demeanor changed, and couldn't help feeling impressed by his stance. He'd been cute in class that day, but now he had an edge that sharpened his features drastically. He was preparing for a fight, and so was his opponent. She watched with apprehension as the dark, hulking figure seemed to prepare for a strike by drawing on whatever energy seemed to propel him.

Shinwoo didn't give the man a chance to start, as he dashed forward and punched him repeatedly in the face and chest, hopping back to spin around and kick the guy in the head.

Hana heard the crack and flinched, glancing at Yuna to see that the girl was still scared, but didn't seem too surprised by Shinwoo's fighting.

She reached into her pockets, but found that her cellphone was missing, along with her keys. Her purse was on the ground next to her, but it was opened already. Assuming that their captors had gone through it already, she decided to peek in it anyway to see if there was anything she could use. Her pocketbook was still intact, money and cards still inside, even her ID and insurance cards. This confused her, as she'd never heard of people being kidnapped only to have their possessions still available to them. Cellphone and keys only… that meant that the men didn't want the girls to make contact with anyone, or have any weapons available, most likely. So they were meant to sit here defenseless while their captors apparently called Shinwoo to come save them? But why Shinwoo? Was there something special going on? And how did the kids know this creepy guy now fighting Shinwoo?

"I don't get it…" she muttered quietly, though the silver-haired one seemed to notice, as he glanced over his shoulder at her, frowning again. She couldn't help blushing a little. Sure, he was evil, and obviously in a foul mood about something, and would likely kill her and Yuna and the boys soon, but the moonlight filtering through the unfinished roof on the building cast shadows and highlights that made him seem more dashing than dangerous. His frown turned to a gaze of puzzlement as she continued to stare at him openly, and suddenly she realized what look must be on her face. Breaking her stare, she forced herself to stare at the floor beside her, clenching her jaw in frustration.

Another crack sounded, followed by a crash, catching everyone's attention. Hana noticed the creepy guy in a pile of supplies, while Shinwoo stood up and crowed over his achievement. Everyone seemed impressed, just as she herself was, but she was still on edge, feeling the malevolence streaming from the captors and their thug. He wasn't out yet, and she worried that this would still end badly for them all. The silver one seemed genuinely pleased with the development though. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed like her initial assumption was right; he thought he was entitled, and would go to any length to amuse himself, including kidnapping, murder, robbery, and whatever other unsavory actions he could think of. Thinking from that point of view, it seemed the only logical conclusion was that she and Yuna had been nothing more than bait. This was both an insult and a relief, since they were not the main target of this. Now the problem was just figuring out how to get everyone out of this safely.

Movement caught her attention as the hulking figure stood back up, facing Shinwoo as if he'd merely been sitting down for a bit instead of being punched into a pile of construction parts. The mood suddenly shifted to one of apprehension as Shinwoo retook his stance and prepared to fight the man again. Digging through her purse again, Hana found that some of her more discreet inventions were still in there; apparently the men hadn't figured they were anything important. True, they likely wouldn't be of any help to her now, but it was still good news to her. Healing marbles, her palm phase healer, and an all-in-one makeup applicator… other than as heavy objects to weigh her purse down, they weren't really any good for fighting off these kinds of people. Huffing to herself, she started planning the next set of incognito inventions she'd make if she ever got the chance.

Shinwoo was once again beating the living crap out of the creepy guy, but Hana wasn't going to hold her breath with that; she could tell their captors were very confident in their thug's abilities. Just as she thought that, the thug managed to get a hit on Shinwoo, putting a gash in his cheek and catching him completely by surprise. Shinwoo moved behind the thug, pinning his arms, but in a surprising move, was flipped over and thrown into another pile of materials, making all of the students tense up in fear. Shinwoo stumbled out of the destroyed pile, but was obviously struggling.

"That guy is better than I thought." The silver-haired man spoke, obviously enjoying the scene. His partner spoke up too, dark laughter in his voice "I want to take him with us. I wonder how he'd transform." "Oh, now that's a thought." The smaller one replied, turning the idea over in his head.

Now that was confusing. Transform? What did he mean by that, and was there any way to avoid it? Things were getting much weirder than she'd expected, not that she really knew what to expect in the first place.

Suddenly their mirth fell, and the two simultaneously turned and faced another doorway, as if they'd heard something, but Hana hadn't heard anything outside of the room. The men started talking again, muttering to each other about energy and accepting some sort of invitation. Quirking a brow, she couldn't help wondering what they meant. She gleaned from their thoughts that some sort of supernatural energy was being funneled through that doorway, and that it was acting like a calling card to get their attention. They left the room, which no one else seemed to notice, and while she was hesitant to leave the others, there wasn't anything she could really do to help, so she took her gadgets, placing them in her pockets and left the purse near Yuna for the time, and snuck off to follow the other two. At the very least, she could do a little stealth recon to figure out what was going on.


	4. Chapter 4

Being as quiet as she could be, she snuck behind doorways and pillars, taking care to stay far enough behind that they shouldn't notice her, but that she could still keep tabs on them. It took more effort than she cared to admit to avoid gasping at what she saw when they finally stopped. Apparently the two men had the same problem.

"Choose." Spoke an authoritative voice in the room. "Whether to die here, or disappear without a trace."

Behind them stood Principal Lee, casting a very stoic and imposing glare in their direction, and giving off one hell of a powerful aura. From their frantic thoughts, she discovered that he was the one casting out that energy they'd felt before, and she suddenly wondered what was so different about them all that such things could be noticed or even done in the first place. The two turned to face him, standing their ground as best they could.

"Who are you?" The silver one ground out angrily.

A new voice responded, cold and dangerous in front of them. "You two are not worthy of asking questions."

Hana's clenched jaw barely stopped her from gasping at the sight of 'Rai', eyes blazing red, figure posed like death as he glared at the men.

The men's stances changed as they suddenly charged towards Lee and Rai, murderous intent flaring, along with a sharp sense of anxiety. This puzzled her, as she couldn't imagine how a school principal or one of his students could be so imposing to someone as large as the silver-haired man's partner, or even himself, given his pompous attitude. Then again, apparently Lee possessed some sort of special abilities related to dark energy, so maybe he was more intimidating than she thought.

'Silver Hair' drew his hands up, his nails elongating into huge black claws. Her eyes widened, but she'd sufficiently lost her desire to gasp at every little surprise now that they were so common all of a sudden. Still, it made him look like a monster out of a fantasy novel as he lunged at Lee, who quickly sidestepped the attack. The large man threw a fist at Rai, causing a huge cloud of dust and concrete chunks as he connected with Rai and the pillar behind him. She was scared for his safety, as well as Lee's, since Silver Hair suddenly started spouting about how easy this would be. Suddenly, though, both men got tense as the dust cleared, and Rai stood there, his hand held out, fingers barely touching the large man's equally large fist. There wasn't a scratch on him, and he was completely composed, as if this sort of thing happened all the time.

"What… How is that possible?" the large man asked incredulously. Hana was wondering the same thing, but wasn't really expecting much of an answer.

"Kneel." Rai said, quiet and demanding. The oversized hulk of a man instantly dropped to his knees with a huge thud. Neither she nor Silver Hair could pull their eyes away until suddenly Lee's voice rang out in the room.

"Never look away." Just as he spoke, some invisible attack assaulted Silver Hair to cry out in pain, his arms lacerated by the unseen force. "Ignoring me as your opponent, how humiliating." The wounds crisscrossed around Silver's arms from shoulder to hands, dripping blood down his flesh. Silver and his partner looked properly terrified as Rai continued to stare down the big one, and Lee lifted his hand dangerously.

"Stop." Rai's voice rang out, causing the others to stare at him in surprise. Lee dropped his hand, staring at the boy in confusion. "We're leaving." He stated simply, walking past them all and towards the room where the other kids were. Lee looked confused, but he followed suit, calling out to Silver Hair before he left the room. "If you don't want to die here, you know what to do."

"Tch. I already know we have no choice." He ground out, staring at the two angrily. "I can't believe it… retreating so simply after all we said." He challenged stupidly.

Lee stopped in his tracks and looked over his shoulder at the bleeding man. "If you still think you stand a chance, feel free to try." He retorted, giving off a violent aura that startled the men visibly. "If you even have the guts to do it."

"Tch." Was all Silver Hair could say as he struggled to stand straight, his bulky partner attempting to follow suit. She watched them for a moment, then snuck off to follow the principal and Rai, hoping to sneak back into position near Yuna before anyone noticed her missing. If only she had a GPS tracker or two to attach to them, if she could even manage such a thing. Next time, she promised herself, simultaneously hoping there would never be a next time.

Figuring it would be better than taking the same route as before, Hana snuck down a different hallway and back into the room with Yuna and the others, quickly dashing to the column the other girl was sitting up against. Sitting just to the side of it, she clutched her purse to her, half-pretending to be in fear for her life, as if she'd been there the entire time. Shinwoo was having a standoff with the creepy thug from before, but neither were moving much.

He looked around a few times, then stared at the thug again. "Ikhan, get the girls." He commanded.

Ikhan looked confused, staring around the room a few times as well. It seemed they only just noticed the absence of their captors. "They're gone… when did that happen?" he puzzled aloud.

"What are you doing? Move it!" Shinwoo yelled, obviously worried that they might come back soon.

"Right!" Ikhan affirmed, running towards Hana and Yuna. The creep dashed towards Ikhan, but Shinwoo cut him off.

"Trying to block us? Can't let you do that." He taunted, effectively blocking the thug's path. Suddenly the man grit his teeth and turned, dashing out of the room angrily.

"What?" Shinwoo asked, confused. "Why's he like that all of a sudden?"

"Shinwoo, it's weird that he's leaving, but don't you think we should get the girls out of here while we can?" Ikhan pointed out, sitting in front of Yuna.

"Yeah, you're right." Shinwoo admitted, turning to help Yuna stand. Ikhan moved towards Hana and offered her a hand up. She smiled shakily at him, still trying to process everything that had happened tonight as she got to her feet.

"Yuna, Hana, are you hurt?"

"No, but my legs feel-" Yuna started shakily.

"Are you alright?" A kind voice called out. Hana stiffened as Lee and Rai advanced on them, acting as if nothing had happened in the other room. They didn't seem to take particular notice of her, so she assumed they didn't know she'd been in there.

"Principal Lee! Rai!" Shinwoo exclaimed happily. Lee smiled cheerfully while Rai's usual stoic expression never wavered. Hana relaxed a little as the tension left the room and they all exited the building. She was silent as the other three talked with Rai and Lee about what had happened, contemplating what she had seen and decided.

"Especially for Hana." Shinwoo's voice cut into her thoughts as they walked.

"Huh? Sorry, I was thinking too hard again." She smiled sheepishly.

"I was just saying how this has been a crazy day, especially for you, since it's your first day here and all."

"Yeah… definitely." She agreed, her voice losing it's pep as she let the events start to sink in.

"I'm sorry you got caught up in it too, but… I'm glad you were with me, Hana. I was terrified, but at least I wasn't alone, you know?" Yuna admitted nervously.

Hana looked at the other girl and smiled sympathetically. "Yeah, I was too. I'm just glad it's over and we're all okay." She added sincerely.

They reached the ground floor and walked back to Principal Lee's house. Hana couldn't help but notice that it seemed strangely auspicious for Rai and Lee to have just shown up out of the blue in a half-finished building in the evening. Of course, she assumed with their powers that they had somehow sensed what was going on. There was no way for the students to know that, however. Had Shinwoo contacted the Principal before he left? It didn't seem like he had, but who knows. Perhaps Principal Lee had come to their rescue before, so they no longer wondered about it? Still, she couldn't help but feel the need to ask, if for no other reason than to appear as clueless as the others.

"Principal Lee?" she asked cautiously.

"Hm? What is it Hana? Are you hurt?" he responded, concern gracing his features. She smiled softly at his worry and shook her head.

"No, not really. I was just wondering… well… how did you even know we were there?" she inquired.

"Ah, that. A professor happened to be in the area and said he noticed Shinwoo and Ikhan rushing into a building that was still under construction, wielding a baseball bat, and acting with a sense of urgency. As the headmaster of Yeran, I like to make sure my students are safe, even outside of school. With everything that's been happening lately, I felt it was my duty to ensure their safety." He explained, not even hesitating. It was quite believable, even to her. Glancing at Rai, who was paying little heed to those around him, she felt even more curious.

"Um… well no offense, but… why did Rai come with you? Wouldn't it be dangerous for him?" she asked, blushing at the possible implications that might offend him.

Rai ignored her and kept walking, calm as ever. Principal Lee, or Frankenstein as she'd heard him called earlier, merely gave a sheepish grin. "He is a very noble sort, and felt that he should come along to, if for no other reason than to assure that everyone was okay. I would not have let him come to any harm."

She smiled and nodded, secretly thinking that it was likely unnecessary for him to protect 'Rai' or whatever his real name might be, but outwardly accepting the explanation she'd been given.


	5. Chapter 5

They reached Lee's house and sat down on his couches while he prepared tea for them. She felt nervous sitting around in the Principal's house so casually, but no one seemed put off by it, so she tried to let it go. He served the tea to Rai, then sat down and spoke with them about what had happened and told them to just take it easy for a few days. The others decided they would all stay at Yuna's for the time, since they had apparently grown up together, so it wouldn't be weird. They invited her to stay with them as well, and while it didn't feel like they did it out of obligation, she still declined the invitation as graciously as she could.

"They took my keys and my cellphone, so I need to go home and replace those things, not to mention get the locks on my house changed." She started thinking about the repercussions of someone having her phone and keys and cringed. The phone would be difficult to crack, unless they had a tech genius on hand, but the keys could easily be traced to specific locations if the men put enough effort into it, and she wasn't eager to have her house broken into.

"Your house? I thought you lived with a foster family?" Ikhan asked her.

"Aah… well, I used to, when I first came here, but the program only allows it for 8 months. I've been here closer to 16, so I had to find a place to live." She explained, hoping they wouldn't ask too much more about it, since she really didn't want to have to think up a lie about how she could afford it on her own, and neither did she want to tell them about her finances, given that she'd only just met them today, and that would just screw up everything.

"Wow, that must be rough. I could never afford to live on my own. Ahh, but I bet your family helped you out with it when you came here, huh?" Shinwoo postured.

"Eheh… something like that." She responded vaguely. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the Principal giving her a quick glance of suspicion. Tensing a bit, she tried to avoid looking at him.

"I really should go. I want to at least get the lock on my front door changed as soon as possible, just in case." She explained, standing slowly.

"Ah, I will have someone drive you home. It would not do to have something happen to you so shortly after this occurrence." Lee offered.

"You have a point. I hate to put you through such trouble for me, but I really would appreciate it." She answered sheepishly, trying not to think about the bad things that could have happened if she'd just started walking home.

"Nonsense. You are one of my students now, and it's my duty to ensure your safety. Please, stay home and rest for a while. You don't need to return to school for a few days, you've been through a lot on only your first day here. I realize it's a terrible first impression, but unfortunately it is just a bad coincidence in timing with everything that's been happening lately." He offered, his voice caring and sincere. She smiled again, looking to Shinwoo and the others, but they seemed to think it was completely normal for him to say.

"I appreciate that, Principal Lee. However, seeing as today was indeed my first day here, I had hoped not to miss any classes for quite some time, if at all possible." She countered, worried about the impression she might leave on others – skipping school after only her first day.

"Ah, I will ask the teachers to assign a student in each class to take notes for you and the others, so you can keep up on your studies. However, I'm sure they will be understanding when all of you return to school, given the circumstances." He assured her.

She smiled and nodded. "Still, I'd like to be up to speed when I do return. I hate being behind in my studies." She admitted.

"Then I will see that it is taken care of. Don't worry." He smiled, then excused himself to call for two cabs to drive the children home. While she waited, Hana decided to take advantage of the view she'd noticed out the patio door. Walking out onto the balcony it led to, she gazed up at the stars and listened to the city. Secretly, she was also stretching her senses to see if she could detect the two men that had captured her and Yuna earlier. She knew it was likely a futile effort, but if she could detect them, then they were likely nearby, and that would unsettle her greatly. By the time the cabs arrived, she still hadn't sensed their presence, so she tried to calm herself as she said goodnight to the others.

"Ah… before we all go, I know I don't have my cellphone on me, but would it be alright for us to trade numbers? Err, well.. for me to get your numbers anyway, since I'll need to get a new one. I'd just feel safer if I had someone to call, just in case, and vice versa. I'll be sure to give you my number as soon as I get a new one. You know, if you're okay with that, anyway." She stammered, realizing she wasn't even sure if that was normal for people who'd just met.

"Ah, of course! That would be a good idea!" Ikhan called out, digging out his cellphone. Hana pulled out a pen and a little notebook she kept in her purse to write down their numbers, deciding to give them her VOIP number for the time being, since it was better than nothing. She giggled as Ikhan explained to the others what VOIP was.

"I could always connect it to my new cellphone, but I try to keep it separate, in case of weird stalkers, spammers, or the occasional kidnappers." She laughed awkwardly, as did the others, though the strange mirth died quickly.

"Um… well, anyway, thank you all. I will be in touch soon." She bowed graciously, realizing too late that she was probably using a bit too archaic of a custom. "Eh… sorry, I've done that for years. Even in America. It's just habit." She explained, blushing at the looks they were giving her.

"No worries. It's not necessary, but neither is it offensive." Principal Lee explained.

"Oh yes, Principal Lee, you have my info on file, right? I can't imagine why you'd need it, but if anything comes up, my address and home phone are also current." She offered aloud.

"You're kind of paranoid, aren't you, Hana?" Shinwoo asked.

She blushed profusely and coughed, looking away. "I guess you could say that. I prefer to think of it as being prepared for the worst." She explained, suddenly feeling defensive and wondering if her personality really was her roadblock when making friends.

"That's actually a pretty good policy. Lots of people believe that if you prepare for the worst, it will never happen, because ill fates only overcome the unsuspecting." Ikhan pointed out.

Hana blinked and looked at Ikhan curiously, then gave a grateful smile.

"Oh? Well that would explain a lot about Shinwoo, huh?" Yuna joked, causing them all to giggle. Hana was happy to have them all in a good mood again as they left the house to meet the cab drivers. It was dark out, but she couldn't help feeling relieved when she recognized the number of one of the cabs out front and ran up to say hi to Mr. Jung.

"Now this is a coincidence. I get a call to come over here for a second time tonight, and you're my fare. Not a lot of business this time of night, luckily my brother was still at the garage so we could both come out here. You kids okay?" The older man asked.

"Yeah, we're fine, our study session ran a little late, so the headmaster didn't want us walking home in the dark." She fibbed, knowing it wouldn't do any good to tell him the truth.

The kids said their goodbyes to Rai and Principal Lee, as well as Hana, before getting into their respective cabs and heading home. Hana wondered what kind of parents Yuna must have to let her have two boys stay there for a few days, but then chalked it up to the length of their friendship. She couldn't help being a little envious of them, since her oldest friend had only known her since junior high back in America.


	6. Chapter 6

As the cab arrived at her house for the second time that night, she thanked Mr. Jung and dashed inside, watching as he drove off again. Looking around, everything seemed as she had left it, though she suddenly realized she was still going to be out of milk and eggs. Grumbling to herself, she walked through each room, flipping on the lights and investigating to ensure she didn't have any unwanted houseguests or missing property. After a thorough examination of the grounds, she couldn't find any sign that anyone had been there, so she headed down to the basement where she had a small laboratory setup. The door to the basement was locked, and a set of industrial doors lay beyond that, requiring her biometrics to open the lock.

"Maichl?" she called out, simultaneously picking up a clipboard and walking over to her main computer terminal.

"Yes, mistress?" A gentle, but masculine voice called back to her, its owner walking towards her with his own clipboard, covered in notes.

"Two unknown entities captured me and another young lady a few hours ago. We were freed, but they have my cell phone and keys. I need to get the locks changed as soon as possible. Please begin manufacturing model EM-7 locks for all of the outer doors." She instructed as she accessed various programs on the computer. The screen flashed with a program that greatly resembled her phone, as she told it to update the contents of her phone backup files, and then fry the phone itself so her captors wouldn't be able to use it.

"Right away." Maichl answered calmly, walking back towards a corner of the lab where a large prototyping machine sat, along with a more refined version for the final models.

Hana got up and made a few notes on her clipboard's notepad as she walked over to a large cabinet and pulled out a few small boxes from it. Inspecting them quickly, she walked towards a small machine and inserted each of the boxes into the appropriate slots before walking back towards the computer. The phone program was still up, so she instructed it to copy over the updated information to a new phone, the parts of which had been loaded into the appropriate machine. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a list of the other kids' numbers so she could input those manually.

Minimizing the program, she left it to its work as she scribbled more notes on her tablet and walked over to another machine, where she sat in a strangely-shaped chair and positioned herself accordingly. A soft green light emitted from the device for a few moments before dimming, indicating that she could stand up again. Small beeps were heard as several digital projections appeared above a small table nearby.

"Same as usual. Good news, I suppose." She murmured, telling the device to save the results and close them.

"Maichl, has there been any progress on the beta model yet?" she asked, walking towards a large chamber in the wall, covered by protective barriers.

"Minimal. There was an unforeseen issue with two of the prototypes earlier, so I haven't had time to continue working on it." He responded, his voice even.

"Nothing drastic, I hope?" she countered, worried that something may have gone wrong.

"No. The prototyping compound needed adjustment, as the last two items created from it cracked in several places, and had to be scrapped. I've added the appropriate corrective materials to the mix, and have not observed any more problems." He assured her.

"Ah. It must have been too heavy for that compound to hold up. Thanks for fixing it." Her relief was evident as she relaxed, smiling a little to herself. Pressing a few buttons on a panel to her left, the chamber barriers slid away, allowing the chamber itself to come forward. Pressing another button, she stood back as it turned and tilted, eventually coming to rest on its back, a table forming from the wall behind it. Opening the chamber revealed a cybernetic skeletal structure of a feminine persuasion, immobile and inactive.

"Eventually I'll finish you, Fai." She muttered to herself as she pulled out various tools to start tweaking little gizmos and circuits throughout the structure. Every now and then, she would stop to scribble down a note on her tablet before picking up a tool and going back to work on it.

"The transfer has been completed." Sounded out from the computer console in a soft feminine voice; typical of a talking computer to sound like that.

"Maichl, how far along are the locks?" Hana asked as she set down her tools and walked towards the machine she'd put the small boxes into earlier.

"Approximately 58%. They should be completed by morning."

Pulling the assembled phone from the machine, Hana inspected it visually, then began checking through the data stored on it to make sure it was correct. "Alright. Would you mind installing them as soon as they're ready? I don't want to put it off too long, just in case."

"Of course." His calm voice acknowledged. "I'll have the keys prepared for you by the time you wake up." He added.

"Oh yeah. Thanks, I would have forgotten that part." She joked. Even geniuses could be forgetful. She tucked the new phone into her pocket and went back to work on the skeletal creation on the table.

"Maichl?"

"Yes mistress?"

"When I finish Fai, are you going to like her more than me?" she asked seriously.

"My programming doesn't have such parameters." He reminded her.

"Would you like me to update your program?" she offered, still tinkering.

"If you wish. I am currently operating at 99.6% accuracy and 73% capacity. All other statistics are remaining constant."

Looking up at him, she pondered her options. "If I updated you, we could probably fix at least .2% of your accuracy, and I could give you a bigger storage chip. Though that secondary personality program is almost finished, too."

"The decision is yours, mistress." He acknowledged.

"I love you to death, but sometimes I wish you had emotions." She admitted dejectedly.

"The secondary personality program will have emotions." He reminded her.

"Yeah, but that's different. You're the primary personality, so you'll still be the same. I just wish you would smile or laugh or something sometimes."

"I could run a randomization algorithm to-"

"No, no… that's not what I mean. I want to give you emotions. Real, working emotions." She enthused.

"What purpose would they serve?"

She sighed. "Mostly they would make me feel a little less lonely here at home. You're here, but you don't act like a person would, so it just feels like another machine is talking to me. There's no warmth, or affection, or anything like that." She complained, setting her tools down to walk over to her assistant.

"I produce 34% heat waste during normal operation." He stated.

"Not that kind of warmth. It's an expression. Emotional warmth, like love or friendship." She corrected.

"Is that not the reason you created the secondary personality programs?"

"Yes, but even Fai's primary personality will have emotions. They'll just be different from the secondary. When I designed you, I hadn't yet discovered how to enable emotions, or I definitely would have added them. Now that I know how, I really want to see them in action, but more than that, I want you to finally be able to react to things that happen around you, instead of just always being calm and collected and… well… bored."

"There is no need for me to react with emotion to the events around me. It would not improve my function or response."

She huffed irritably. "Maichl, I made you to be my assistant and my friend. You can't be a friend if you don't have any feelings."

"Would that not impede my ability to monitor the lab?"

"I don't know... I guess. Maybe." She muttered.

"Then would it not be more prudent to simply create another cybernetic body to house the secondary program and any other emotional personality programs?"

"I really hate when you're right sometimes." She whined. "I just… you're my favorite. You always will be. To me, you should always have the best traits."

"I have the traits you programmed me with, which are more than sufficient for my duties here. I have no need of any others."

"I know." She grumbled and leaned against him, hugging him loosely and giving him a kiss on the cheek. "I just wish you cared when I did that."

"I recognize it as a sign of affection, and understand that it is a good thing. As much as I am able, I appreciate the gesture."

She smiled a little and giggled, standing in front of him. "Maichl?"

"Yes, mistress?"

"Would you mind if I gave you an optional set of emotions? You could turn them on or off as needed, and you'd be the only personality program loaded into your database."

"It would not bother me." He acknowledged, his voice calm as always.

"Thanks." She smiled, heading back towards the unfinished structure from before.

Many hours later, Hana put the tools away and ran a diagnostic on Fai. She smiled to herself as the results came back higher than those in the past. "Finally, some decent progress. I might have her finished by next month, if I'm diligent." She cheered to herself, pressing buttons on the chamber to close it and re-insert it into the wall.

"Oh, Maichl, re-prioritize the GPS tracker project to level 2. If something like this evening happens again, I want to be prepared."

"Yes mistress."

She walked back to the computer, reading over some of her notes and adding things here and there before sitting back down at the terminal. The phone program had auto-closed once it had finished, so she opened up a set of files she'd been working on for Maichl's secondary personality program, and extracted specific parts into a new file. Luckily the emotional part of the programming had been finished for some time, she just needed to tweak some of the details of the personality itself before it would be complete. Going over the separated code for errors, she didn't see any obvious ones, and decided to have the computer go ahead and test it.

"Once the computer finishes running the test loops, if it comes out successful, you can download the file to your O sector. If you run into any problems, just disable it until I can fix it." She instructed Maichl.

"I'll do that."

"The headmaster asked me to stay home for a few days, so I'll be up a little late tomorrow, probably. Let me know if anything goes wrong with the prototypes or the installation of the locks, or whatever. You know the drill." She added, walking towards the door.

"I do."

Smiling, she put her clipboard back in its place and bid her assistant goodnight before leaving the lab and going up to her room. She opened a window and stood there for a few minutes, trying to sense those two men from before, but she couldn't. Again. Closing the window, she changed into her nightclothes and laid down.


	7. Chapter 7

She woke the next morning to her house phone ringing and wondered who would be calling. Groggily, she picked it up and answered, hoping it wasn't an emergency or anything.

"Hey, Hana, we're gonna go hang out with Rai. Wanna come with?" Shinwoo's voice greeted her cheerfully.

Surprised by this sudden invitation, she blinked a few times. "Um… well, actually, I was going to see about replacing my locks and stuff today… but, um… I'll call you if I finish with that early enough to hang out, okay?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Yeah, call us if you have time after. See ya." He acknowledged.

"Bye." She responded, hanging up the phone. The locks should already have been installed, and she had a new phone now, but she didn't want to raise suspicion, and there were things she still needed to do today. Luckily Shinwoo didn't seem put off or anything. She'd hate to have insulted these new potential friends already.

Getting dressed in some casual clothes, she headed downstairs, checking to make sure the locks had indeed been installed. The keys were on the kitchen counter, so she tested the lock to make sure it would work. Once satisfied that they were operating correctly, she tucked the keys away and headed down to the lab to check on Maichl and the other projects. No new problems had arisen with the prototyping machine, so he'd started working on the GPS tracking system she wanted, and had made significant progress already. A basic, non-empathic model was already available in the cabinet, so she took some of those and instructed the computer to upload the tracking program to her new phone so she could be prepared. Rummaging through the cabinet for a few other devices to tuck in her purse, she decided to add another project to the priority 2 list, and told Maichl before heading to a back room of the lab.

She had plenty of projects she wanted to work on, but first she wanted to try finding those two men again, and since she hadn't had any luck the old fashioned way, she wanted to try one of her more cartoony gadgets. Sitting down in another oddly-shaped chair with a funny helmet structure on top, she thought back to her inspiration for this particular invention and couldn't help sighing at the tragic fact that she'd gotten the idea from an American comic series. Xavier's Cerebro from X-men had multiplied the professor's telepathic abilities a hundred-fold. This small room with its odd chair performed a similar function for Hana's empathic abilities, though only about 5 times better than 'au naturale'. Relaxing into the device as it powered up, she tried to sense any trace of the men who'd captured her and Yuna the night before. She wasn't sure how Xavier supposedly saw things through Cerebro, but her Empathy Chamber made her see the world around her in big splats of color, and big voids where there was no one to sense. It was like falling down the rabbit hole, if the rabbit hole had been made of tye-dye cotton balls. A little unnerving at first, to say the least.

After a while of sorting through the colors, she sensed a familiar grey haze that almost blended in with the voids, but not quite. Focusing on that, she felt amusement, boredom, apprehension, confusion, fear, anger, and curiosity all broiling on the surface. Just as she was about to try and dig deeper, the subject became alarmed and focused on something or someone nearby… and suddenly became very anxious. Deciding this wasn't going to help her much, she cut off the search and exited the chamber, hoping that whatever had made him anxious wouldn't cause too many problems for her and the other kids. Then again, even if it did, it was likely that Lee… Frankenstein? Whatever his real name was… he'd probably come to their rescue again, but still, it had to be hard to deal with such things on a recurring basis, so she hoped it wouldn't come to that. Just to be on the safe side though… "Maichl, could you have a working prototype of the e-GPS system available by this evening?"

"I believe so. Given my current progress, the newest model should be ready for testing by 2 p.m. today." He affirmed.

"Good. Let me know as soon as it's ready. I want to get it up and running pronto."

"Yes mistress."

Realizing she'd forgotten something important the night before, she went to the computer terminal and put in a fabrication order for replacement keys for all the other keys that had been on her key ring, and updated the house key files with the new keys.

Returning to the chair she'd sat in the night before, she let it run its tests once more, the results once again remaining the same. "Yup. Still a science experiment." She huffed to herself before saving the new results.

"Fabrication complete." The feminine computer voice stated. Heading to a small table to the side of the computer, Hana waited as a panel in the middle opened up and a small platform rose up with her keys nicely laid out on it, organized into groups on separate key rings as she'd had it before. Putting them onto a new keychain clip, she stuffed it in her purse and left the lab, giving a quick good-bye to Maichl on her way out.

Given all that had happened the night before, it was no surprise she hadn't thought about it yet, but she was still out of milk and eggs. It would be strange to go back to the same shop already, so she decided to find another store in town instead. Consulting her phone's map system, she found that there weren't as many little quickie-marts nearby as she'd hoped, and the real grocery stores were further downtown. Sighing, she chose the closest one other than her usual place, and headed out the door, checking quickly for any signs of attempted break-in. Luckily there were none, so she started down the sidewalk casually, glad it was still daytime so she wouldn't have to worry about a repeat of last night.

Leaving the building, she stopped just outside the doors and realized she'd spent more time in there than she'd planned, and hoped she'd have time to make it home before dark. Images of the three men from the night before flashed through her mind, and she frowned. Realization slammed into her as she recognized the consciousness of the silver-haired one and the large one, many stories above her in a building across the street. Her gaze shot upward to where she sensed them, her breath hitching in her throat as she could just make out the silhouette of Silver Hair (the only name she could think of for him at the time). She couldn't see details, but she knew without a doubt that it was him. Her options were few and far between; she could call Principal Lee and warn him, but then how would she explain knowing it was that man? And what could she expect him to do in the middle of the day, with so many bystanders? Still, her only other option was to just hope for the best and try to get home quickly. Glancing down the sidewalk, she heaved a sigh. Her home was at least half an hour away, if not more. That left way too much time for those two and their underling to wreak havoc. A sudden thought gave her pause; she was closer to downtown than usual, perhaps a cab could arrive quickly enough? No… she supposed not. She wasn't that much closer, so it wouldn't make much difference. She'd just have to take her chances for now, though a quick message to Maichl couldn't hurt any. At least then if she didn't show up in time, someone would know to come look for her. While Maichl's main function was as her assistant, he could be quite the deadly guardian if need be.

As she hit send, she tensed, looking skyward again. She could feel it; he'd spotted her from his rooftop perch, and he knew who she was. Damn. So much for that. At least this was still a public area, maybe she had a chance if she disappeared down a back road or something instead of her straight-through route. She stood there for a moment longer, staring up at his vague form, unable to shake a feeling of anticipation as she felt his thoughts swirling on the surface, wondering why she was there, or why she was staring up at him. Surely she couldn't know he was there, if she could, what did that mean, etc. It felt like a challenge, and strangely, she wanted to accept, but knew it wasn't worth risking her life just to try and confront him. She saw the large one come to stand beside him and felt suddenly as if someone were peeking into her mind. All she could read from him was surprise before she turned away and walked down the sidewalk as inconspicuously as possible. Remaining alert, she discreetly sent another message to Maichl to warn him of this development. He offered to come find her and escort her home, but she didn't want to leave the house unguarded if it wasn't necessary, so she declined, but opted to enable one of the GPS beacons so that he could track her location if things went south.

Roughly ten minutes later, she found herself in a quiet part of the neighborhood and realized there were no onlookers nearby to rely on. Sensing two minds she hadn't been able to sense since she left the store, she tensed. 'So cliché.' She thought to herself, realizing this was always how it happened in the movies. Now the only thing up for debate was how long she had to live and how they would choose to kill her. Not pleasant thoughts, though the fight or flight response bubbling in her mind gave her just enough adrenaline to feel confident. Funny things, hormones.

Footsteps echoed from behind her, but only one pair, heavy and solid. Wondering where the other one could be hiding, she soon had her answer as she both felt and saw him emerging from around a corner ahead of her. He seemed so relaxed, as if he were just taking a stroll like any other person, but she remembered clearly that feeling of wanton violence from before.


	8. Chapter 8

She took a breath and kept walking, hoping maybe she could pretend she didn't recognize him, and just walk past him, but just as she tried to do so, he grabbed her by the arm and 'guided' her into the darkened street he'd been waiting in moments before. His grip was tight, but he wasn't hurting her very much, which she found to be rather curious. He pulled her towards a wall and stood in front of her, his hand still around her arm. She saw the fire in his eyes and knew he would break it in half if he felt like it. Inhaling sharply, she summoned her own fiery determination and stared right back at him, showing that she wouldn't kowtow to his bravado so easily.

"You knew we were there. How?" he demanded quietly as his large friend came to stand nearby. Her gaze flicked to him for a moment before returning to Silver's face, the sensation of being mentally prodded once again surprising her. She knew he would want an answer, but she wasn't sure what she could say that wouldn't land her in more danger than she was already in. His grip tightened slightly, and she gasped quietly, hoping it wouldn't have to come down to the kind of violence she knew he was capable of.

She knew she couldn't lie. For all her efforts with her own abilities, she couldn't mask her own lies at all. It was a horrible downfall, but that was just the way things were. Drawing on her adrenaline-fueled courage, she gave a small smirk. "What does it matter? Two strong men against a young woman, it's not like I'm any threat to you."

He gave an amused 'hmph' at her response, smirking devilishly. "Aren't you brave? Still, that's for us to decide. Now tell me before I have to break something." He threatened, his nails suddenly growing into short claws that barely pricked her skin. There it was again, that senseless feeling of anticipation… excitement… desire, even. Even threatening her life, he was despicably handsome, and she couldn't help wishing the situation were different. Oh, the things she'd do just for the chance to kiss him…

Hm… now there was a thought. Her smirk turning into a mock-pout, she glanced at his claws, then back at him, staring brazenly into his eyes. "There's no need for violence to persuade me, with a handsome man such as yourself. After all, why get your hands bloody when you could just as easily bribe me with something more… pleasurable." She offered, her pout returning to a confident smirk.

He balked, but just for a second, as he realized what she was implying. Releasing her arm, he stood back to laugh, good and hearty. "You think I want to know so badly, I would agree to not only let you live, but to grant your foolish desire? You are a brave one, or maybe just really foolish. Tell me, what would I stand to gain from it, as opposed to just breaking your bones one by one until you tell me what I want to know?" His smirk was truly evil now, and it sent a shiver down her spine.

'If you're gonna go, go for greatness, right?' she thought to herself. Shrugging, she crossed her arms beneath her breasts, knowing it was likely to have no effect, but it couldn't hurt. "You assume it wouldn't be just as fun for you as it would be for me, and you're wrong. All I'm asking for is a kiss. Just one kiss, and I'll tell you what you want to know. Isn't that so much quicker and simpler than having to go through the effort of breaking me?" she challenged.

Silver looked over at his partner for a moment, who seemed utterly bewildered by the whole situation, and then shrugged, turning back to Hana. "I suppose you do have a point, but be assured that if you try to deceive me, or I don't like your answer, I'll break you anyway." He promised, stepping forward again.

"Fair enough, however," she started, holding up a finger to make him wait a moment, "It has to be a real kiss. Not some Hollywood pretend thing, I want the real deal. Kiss me like you would a favorite lover, and then I'll tell you what you want to know. No skimping, or I won't tell you a thing." She warned, lowering her hand.

He paused for a moment, regarding her thoughtfully, then smirked smugly as he leaned forward, one hand resting on the wall just to the side of her head, the other coming up to cup the back of her neck. Just before he reached her mouth, he whispered "You asked for it."

Her eyes closed as his lips pressed against hers, firmly massaging them with his own. She started to open her mouth to protest that this wasn't a real kiss, but he cut her off by catching her lip with his sharp canines, his nails digging into the back of her neck just slightly, causing her to shiver. She gasped softly and he slipped his tongue inside, letting it dance expertly with her own. Eager to prove her earlier claim, she dropped her bag of groceries to the ground gently and slipped her arms up around his neck, letting her tongue seduce his, a soft moan reverberating in her throat as she sought to return his kiss in equal force. Despite her lack of claws, she slipped a hand up into his hair at the base of his head and let her nails scrape his flesh gently, delighting in the softness of his silver locks and the muffled groan he gave in response. His free hand suddenly came down to grab her waist, his claws digging into the soft flesh beneath her shirt with urgency. She whimpered softly and suckled his tongue in appreciation.

The sound of someone clearing their throat startled the two into breaking apart. Hana felt flushed and needy, not having expected such a kiss from the silver-haired devil. Gazing at him quietly, she found he had been similarly affected by the experience, and couldn't help smirking inwardly.

"Satisfied?" he challenged seductively.

She smirked "Mmm, not by a long shot, but you've fulfilled my requirement for a kiss, at least." She countered, pleased to notice that he caught her meaning.

"Then tell me, before I regret giving in to your little request." He demanded, his smirk fading, though not completely.

"All business, as expected. Fine. I knew you were there because, similar to your friend here, I am of the telepathic persuasion." She admitted, bracing herself as they tensed in surprise. "I don't actually read thoughts like you," she corrected, facing the large one, "I only feel things. Emotions, mostly. I can sense other's thoughts if I try hard enough, and they are unguarded, but it's not as easy for me as it would be for a regular telepath like yourself."

She paused as they absorbed this information, sensing apprehension from them both. Sighing softly at the stupidity of what she was about to say, she looked back to Silver Hair. "I know you're not normal people, and that you're very powerful. I also know about the two men who fought you last night, and that they aren't normal humans either. I'm not powerful, and I can't even imagine lasting in a fistfight against another human girl, so physically, I'm no threat to you. I do, however, have other abilities and resources at my disposal, should I need them, though I'd really prefer not to have to resort to that. I realize you have no reason to do so, but I would appreciate it if you wouldn't mention any of this to anyone. It's extremely difficult to lead any kind of life when people think of you as some freaky science experiment." She admitted dolefully. She sensed a spark of recognition and understanding from the two, and wondered what it was in regards to.

"You're right, we have no reason to keep your secret, but we will for now. Think of it as a bargaining chip on our part, should you cross our path again." The large one spoke, and she could only assume he meant it as a way to get more information from her in the future without his buddy having to acquiesce to her desires yet again.

"If you wish. Honestly, though, hurting us is not going to help you achieve whatever goal you're after. I fear it would only make Frankenstein and Rai even more angry than they were yesterday, and given the results of that, it would behoove you to avoid such things." She advised, leaning down to pick up her groceries again.

Silver Hair and his friend turned to walk away, but she stopped them. "Wait…"

"What?" Silver asked warily.

"Could I at least know your name?" she asked, a small smile on her face.

"What for? You won't find anything about us in any database."

"Can't a girl just want to know the name of a cute guy?" she countered playfully.

He huffed in amusement. "You're serious? I threatened to kill you, numerous times now, and you want to know my name because you've got some silly crush on me?"

She shrugged, still smiling. "What can I say, you leave a hell of an impression." She admitted with a wink.

He huffed again and shook his head. "I don't have a name, but you can call me M-21." His smirk turned evil again as he added, "Don't think that this makes any difference. I'd still kill you in a heartbeat if I felt like it."

She sighed, "I thought as much." She affirmed, watching as they walked off, then hopped up into the air, jumping off rooftops until they were out of sight.

Surprised she had not only managed to make it out of that situation alive, but even dared to kiss the violent young man, Hana couldn't help sagging against the wall in relief. Just to be sure, she pinched herself. Ouch… no, she wasn't dreaming. Looking back towards the building she assumed they were returning to, she shook her head and continued her trek home, no longer worried about any danger, save for that creepy guy they'd had before, but somehow she didn't think she'd be seeing him either.


	9. author's note

Chapter 9 is about half done currently, but I've been busy with work and healing from a stupidly-gotten injury (being klutzy and distracted are two of my best skills XP ), and I haven't had time to really concentrate on this story lately.

Also, I don't know how obvious it is yet, so I wanted to post a better warning for anyone who has read this far: This story started out as a simple rewrite to include Hana, who would crush on M-21 and other bishie characters (Takeo, Rajak, etc), though mostly she'd be focused on M-21. As I started writing it, however, I changed the plans here and there, and started including more and more OC's (mostly the taxi drivers and Hana's AI bots, which I need a better term for :/ ). The story will still follow the original storyline, but there will be a lot of other content surrounding Hana's life. I realize this isn't the best way to write a fic, but it started out just for me, so it wasn't a concern at the time. I do hope that many of you will still enjoy the story, but I apologize if it's a problem for anyone.

Aside from that, I'm hoping to write more on this story later. Don't worry, I won't include any tentacle monsters (though with her being a mad scientist of sorts, it totally crossed my mind. So sue me XD ), but things are going to get spicy once more of the characters are introduced. If you're not the sort to look forward to lemons, then you might want to stop reading. I'm a grown woman, and I'm not ashamed to admit I love lemons ^.~ lots and lots of them XD (hence why the omitted tentacle monster chapter is staying on my hard drive)

So for now, ciao!


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